ABK Biomedical announced today the appointment of Michael J. Mangano as president and chief executive officer. Mangano will be responsible for leading global business activities, including the rapid development, regulatory approval and commercialization of ABK's unique medical device technologies.

Mangano most recently served as president and CEO of ReShape Medical, a U.S. venture-backed company focused on obesity where he increased organizational value and played a lead role in orchestrating the sale of the company to EnteroMedics in October 2017. Prior to ReShape, Mangano was president of the Americas for Sirtex Medical, a leading publicly traded Australian biomedical company, where he grew the business nearly five-fold from $30M to more than $140 million while building a team of 17 to more than 130 employees in a period of six years. His leadership resulted in a dramatic increase in the company's valuation, leading to the recently announced acquisition in progress of Sirtex Medical by CDH Investments for $1.4B USD. Prior to Sirtex, Mangano spent 15 years with Boston Scientific in numerous senior management roles, including overseas assignments in Japan and Australia. Mangano was recently appointed to Board of Directors of Ellex Medical Lasers Limited (ASX:ELX), a global leader in medical devices for the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases.

ABK Biomedical Chairman of the Board Dr. Aaron Berez commented, "Mike is an accomplished leader with a history of global success in building dynamic teams, leading organizational change, creating and shaping strategies and executing programs – all directly increasing shareholder value. His vast experience in sales and marketing management, product development, strategic planning, international business, M&A, project management and business model development will be invaluable as he takes the reins at ABK and leads the company into the next phase of our evolution."

​"I am excited to join the team at ABK, which has outstanding experience in the medical device industry. The talent at ABK, coupled with an innovative technology platform and pipeline, provide a strong foundation and solid prospects for our future growth and success," said Mangano. "I especially look forward to working with the interventional radiology and oncology communities to develop and market novel technologies that will help patients and physicians, and want to thank the founders and the board of ABK for their support."Dr. Bob Abraham, co-founder and former CEO, is a practicing interventional radiologist and will remain with the company as Chief Medical Officer. He will continue to play a key role in product development and the clinical evolution of ABK's key technology platforms.Mangano will continue to serve on the ABK board of directors.

ABK Biomedical received support from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) to commercialize its Easi-Vue embolization microspheres in-house. The successful commercialization of this innovation will lead to new business opportunities and more well-paying jobs as the microspheres are set to compete in global markets. The funding was announced in February 2018 at ABK's new facility in Bayers Lake by Darrell Samson, MP for Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).

The contribution, being made through ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF), is going towards the design and development of custom equipment as well as getting the regulatory approval needed for ABK Biomedical to scale-up its manufacturing process. It will support the manufacturing of devices in a clinical study, enabling regulatory approvals for sale of the device in the United States and globally. This AIF project will create six good quality jobs with the potential for more as demand for the product grows.

Quotes:“Innovation isn’t just about finding solutions that make our lives better; it’s about improving everyone’s quality of life. That is why the Government of Canada is committed to supporting projects such as this one, which will have an international impact while enhancing Atlantic Canada’s ability to compete in the global marketplace.”- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for ACOA

“ABK Biomedical is one of the firms keeping Atlantic Canada’s life sciences community on the leading-edge. By keeping the manufacturing local, ABK will create new jobs and economic opportunities in the area, while setting itself up for international export. Today’s announcement will secure the commercialization of the microspheres to help cancer patients worldwide.” - Darrell Samson, Member of Parliament for Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook

“This investment enhances our competitive presence by allowing us to accelerate plans to manufacture and export medical devices internationally directly from Halifax. ABK is now positioned to develop and sustain high quality jobs in the medical device sector in Atlantic Canada and our company and products will soon help improve the lives of patients with hyper vascular tumours globally.” - Dr. Bob Abraham, CEO, ABK Biomedical Inc.

No other meeting offers the diversity of topics, the range of learning environments, the unparalleled access to expert faculty and leading thinkers in the specialty. ABK Biomedical presented their scientific abstract "A Bilateral Partial Swine Renal Artery Embolization Study using “Imageable” Embolic Microspheres: Assessment of Mechanism of Occlusion, Embolization Effectiveness, Device Migration and Safety” during the scientific session.

ABK presented a feature paper at CIRSE 2015 in Lisbon Portugal. The programme was designed around six main themes: vascular Interventions, transcatheter embolisation, interventional oncology, neurointerventions, non-vascular interventions and IR management.

The excitement and promise of IR were in the spotlight at SIR 2015. SIR's Annual Scientific Meeting is the world’s largest and most comprehensive IR educational experience designed for all professional levels and all practice environments.

ABK Biomedical Inc.,announced today it is consolidating its operations to Halifax. Heading up this consolidation will be ABK Biomedical’s new Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Bob Abraham. As an ABK Biomedical co-founder, Dr. Abraham also serves as Chief Medical Officer and is a member of its Board of Directors.

The company focus to Halifax and CEO appointment follow ABK Biomedical’s recent award of $2.14M from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), under the Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF). The AIF award will enable ABK to simplify and enhance chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer patients with ABK’s novel radiopaque embolic beads. In addition to ACOA’s support, ABK has received funding through strong local, national and US based angel and institutional investment. The commitment of the private investors, with the leverage from AIF funding will fuel ABK’s lead product first-in-human trials as well as advancing a robust pipeline of products.

In his new role as CEO, Dr. Abraham will steer ABK through clinical validation, regulatory approval and market readiness. Dr. Abraham will also lead the expansion of the company’s product pipeline as ABK Biomedical looks to develop next generation resorbable, radiopaque, drug eluting and radioembolic agents to be used for chemoembolization and radioembolization treatment of liver cancer.

“As a nationally recognized embolization expert, we are delighted to have Dr. Abraham as our new, full-time CEO,” said Dr. Aaron Berez, Chairman of the Board of ABK Biomedical. “His experience as a clinician, entrepreneur and med tech investor as well as his dedication to patients and passion for innovation make him the ideal candidate to lead ABK.”

“Having the full ABK Biomedical team, including product engineering, quality management system (QMS), regulatory, and R&D, together in our Halifax facilities supports our commitment to bringing our novel embolic systems to patients as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Abraham.Dr. Abraham has spent more than 20 years as a practicing clinician and interventional radiologist at Capital Health (CDHA). He has successfully licensed catheter innovations and established the Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE) program at QEII Health Sciences Centre and IWK in 2001. Dr. Abraham earned his medical degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, interned at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, returned to complete specialty training in Diagnostic Imaging at Dalhousie University and then completed sub-specialty training in Interventional Radiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPC), a past Chair of the Royal College's exam in Diagnostic Radiology, and Past President for the Canadian Association of Radiologists (CIRA).

Founded in 2012, ABK Biomedical Inc. is pursuing development, production and sale of embolic agents and peripheral vascular delivery devices. The company’s radiopaque pipeline products, while still investigational, have the potential to provide simpler, safer and more cost effective solutions for treating hypervascular tumors and diseases.

ABK Biomedical Inc. will receive $2.14 Million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), under the Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF). Using ABK Biomedical’s novel embolic microspheres, this funding will enable the company to simplify and enhance chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer patients.

"ACOA’s recognition of the potential of our beads to improve embolization and treat tumours is a tremendous boost to ABK,” commented Dr. Daniel Boyd, Chief Scientific Officer at ABK Biomedical.

"This funding will enable us to take our lead product into clinical trials in Nova Scotia and help us move forward two new therapies targeting liver cancers. All these products have the potential to improve cancer treatment right here in Nova Scotia,” remarked Dr. Bob Abraham, Chief Medical Officer at ABK Biomedical.

ABK Biomedical’s OccluRad embolization microspheres are radiopaque. This makes them clearly visible under X-ray and reduces the use of potentially toxic X-ray dye required with other embolic therapies. The combination of ABK’s radiopaque microspheres and its accompanying delivery device makes the device safer, more accurate, and effective for embolotherapy.

With the global market for minimally invasive surgeries reaching $50 billion US by 2019[i], ABK Biomedical’s OcculRad embolization microspheres is well placed to address minimally invasive approaches to uterine fibroid treatment, liver cancer and many other clinical applications. Under the AIF program, ABK will prepare the next generation of its proprietary embolic platform for these clinical applications.

ABK Biomedical Inc. provides and continues to provide accurate information on its website.However, ABK Biomedical Inc. assumes no responsibility for accuracy and/or completeness, express or implied, as to the information contained or omitted and/or the products described.Furthermore, ABK Biomedical may change the products mentioned at any time without notice.At this time, ABK Biomedical Inc. products are not intended or approved for clinical use.​(C) Copyright 2016 - All International Rights Reserved - ABK Biomedical Inc.